Cathay Pacific Closes All US Flight Attendant Bases

Many airlines have foreign based crew, like BA, Qantas, Air New Zealand to name a few...

It is very interesting now to consider / discuss unions.
I know its not your blog.... but more for CNBC early morning conversation. Still- so much to consider how life will no longer be the same.

Do any other airlines have foreign bases in the US?

I believe United has FA’s in Hong Kong.

As of now, American is not using any of their FA’s from any of their NY bases.

FYI - on SCMP:

"Cathay’s US cabin crew in 2017 voted to unionise for better pay and conditions, following a dispute during which the airline stopped pension contributions, leaving staff facing the loss of government retirement payouts and post-retirement health insurance protection.
Last year it ratified its first three-year contract with the company, which at the time included immediate pay increases, back pay, schedule flexibility and retirement security for flight attendants."

So I wouldn't assume its because HK based unions are more strong; it could just be that these US-based unionized crew just became too expensive to keep.

I think this is more a industry wide contraction the same is being said for many other industries today. Within my own company this discussion is being had. While its sad to see things like this happen most likely it's cheaper to always have a crew on "rest" in certain locations rather than a full base operations.

This is just a temporary measure. Once air travel demand is recovered they will be back.

TWA used to have a base in Paris and a base in Rome besides in NY, and LA for international flights.

Very sorry to hear about the loss of jobs to Cathay crew.

In recollection, the misfortunes of Cathay started in 2019 with their human error that priced out millions of dollars worth of First Class asia / north america flights at Coach fare, then rolled into HK protests, and then coronavirus.

I hope they pull out of this well, as I'm a fan [of Cathay Pacific, not Mandarin Oriental].

@Andrew

BA closed its HKG base a couple of years ago.

The CX crews were good people. Some of the most genuine I have encountered on any airline.

One one my best friend and his wife are CX Los Angeles base crew. He told me they both lose their job yesterday.

I’m a DM (diamond member) who frequent lax-hkg-lax flights. I will definitely miss the lax base crew. They have the can do attitude, professionalism and genuinely kind. Flights will never be the same without them.

I am one of the CX US base crew. It is a heartbreaking news for ALL of us. Especially in this pandemic time. It is our pleasure to serve our passengers and it is heart warming to see we will be missed. Hope one day we will be able to serve our passengers in the sky again.

And they don't get unemployment benefit from us government either because Cathay found a loop hole two years ago to make itself a foreign company so they don't have to contribute to SSI and edd. ( Wife's one of the crew got lost her job yesterday )

We are booked in September to fly Cathay Pacific from JFK to Bali thru Hong Kong I hope you and us are all back to work to make this dream trip happen..

@Endre

I have a couple of questions for you.
1. If you ALWAYS fly on a paid business or first class ticket is that because a deep pocketed corporation is paying for your flights, and you are fortunate enough to benefit from this corporate spend? Do your paid business or first class tickets extend to your personal/aspirational trips that you take?
2. With all of the miles/points you are accumulating from ALWAYS flying paid business or first class, what are you doing with all those points/miles? Converting them to Amazon gift cards, perhaps?[!!]. I feel sure you are earning them for your travel otherwise you likely wouldn't be reading OMAAT?

Cathay's US-based flight crews were always quite inferior in service quality and attitude to Hong Kong / Asia-based crews, lowering Cathay's brand value. Meanwhile, they were likely better compensated. Hence it's just logical for Cathay to eliminate its US crew bases.